[NHCOLL-L:811] Re: shipping specimen in Bouin's preservative

[Sally Shelton]

What Judith said (as usual, she is ahead of me). Picric acid is a contact explosive. This alone may prevent ANY legal shipment of the specimen. Under no circumstances should it be shipped in a breakable container. CMN has the best horror stories about this stuff, so Judith speaks with the real voice of expertise here. 



Sally Y. Shelton
Collections Officer
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC   20560-0107
phone (202) 786-2601, FAX (202) 786-2328
email Shelton.Sally at nmnh.si.edu

List owner, PERMIT-L


>>> "Judith Price" <JPRICE at MUS-NATURE.CA> 12/15/00 11:08AM >>>
Jessica, you will probably hear this from several people, but we have too much experience with this here at CMN.  Bouin's is meant only as a fixative; as a preservative it leaves a lot to be desired, like stability against explosion.  We had to have the army bomb squad in to deal with a large collection we innocently acquired, as no-one else would touch it (literally.)

My advice would be not to ship this thing even off the shelf until you get an expert opinion on its current condition.  This may sound alarmist, but the anecdotal evidence is too scary to mess with.  If the fish is fairly recently preserved, and you can get a second opinion that no crystals have developed, then open it and change the fluid.

Do not put this thing in the post.

Judith

(Ms) Judith C. Price
Secretary, Canadian Society of Zoologists
Assistant Collection Manager, Invertebrates
Canadian Museum of Nature
P.O. Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa, ON  K1P 6P4
jprice at mus-nature.ca 
tel. 613 566-4263
fax 613 364-4027

Please visit us at http://www.nature.ca 

>>> Jessica Rosales <rosales at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU> 15-Dec-00 10:55:53 AM >>>
Hi,

Does any one have suggestions for shipping a small catfish that is 
preserved in Bouin's?  Since Bouin's has picric acid in it, I am hesitant 
to do the usual wrapping of the specimen in damp cheesecloth.  I was 
thinking of shipping the fish in the jar itself.  Any thoughts?

Thank you,

-Jess


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jessica Rosales
Collections Manager
Texas Natural History Collections, Texas Memorial Museum
University of Texas at Austin
PRC 176 / R4000
10100 Burnet Road, Austin TX  78758
512.471.8845 voice
512.471.9775 fax